Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins’ wife, Jessica, has claimed in an interview that one of the reasons for the streamers departure from Twitch was the “pretty toxic” chat.
Speaking to Business Insider, she revealed that Ninja was becoming unhappy with streaming due to the constant exposure to his chat. “I could tell as his wife, the last few months on Twitch, he just didn’t seem like the Ninja that I knew,” she said. “He didn’t seem as enthusiastic, as loud, as hyped up about wins and motivated to stream.”
She now feels that Ninja is in a better space now and that he has regained some of the happiness that went missing during his later stages on Twitch. “He’s completely different,” Jessica said. “He’s back to that energetic, pumped-up Ninja. This is just his wife speaking, but hearing that excitement and seeing him so happy, I’m really, really happy we made it [the switch to Mixer].”
The interview also uncovers that the Ninja Mixer negotiations took only a “couple of weeks” and that the contract he was under at Twitch was preventing his brand from growing, with Jessica saying that it “didn’t make sense” and that the platform “wouldn’t listen to us” when trying to negotiate the terms of his contract.
Since building a massive following by streaming on Twitch, Ninja has expanded his brand to such a level that he has attracted sponsorship from the likes of Adidas and Red Bull, as well as making numerous appearances on mainstream television shows. It seems strange on Twitch’s part that they would try to limit the opportunities someone like NInja can get.
This is really the deepest I’ve gone into talking about details of the switch and decision makers of @Ninja going from Twitch to @WatchMixer https://t.co/Tb1fazTiMB
— Jessica Blevins (@JessicaBlevins) October 2, 2019
It appears then that between becoming unhappy with his audience on Twitch and a contract restricting him from growing his brand, the logical choice was to break the mould and switch platforms.
Many speculated that his move was motivated by money and that a large sum would have been paid to Ninja to tempt him over to Mixer.
However, Jessica states in the interview that money was “the last thing on our mind.”